Harry Reid's Letter goes for $2.1 Million

[Xenotime]

Source: ebay

History: 213 bids
Winning bidder: bettyc588( 92)


Read more: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&Item=260170172469&Category=4105&_trksid=p3907.m29

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I wonder who 'bettyc588' really is?

[Horse with no Name]

1. Rush's drug dealer?

:shrug:

[Xenotime]

2. Winner's name is Betty Casey. Just found out.

[jimnasium]

5. Wife of Eugene Casey?

Kinda ironic... considering if that's the case, Casey worked in the Roosevelt administration.

[rodeodance]

3. umm.. interesting indeed. ----the end result is to make fun of the Dems.

[Xenotime]

4. Harry Reid said something about this on the Senate Floor

[pissnoffrethugs]

6. He thanked Rush

I think Reid just thanked Rush for auctioning off the letter.

[Just-plain-Kathy]

8. I guess because the money went to a good charity...

I thought this was interseting....

clip>>>

As winning bidder, you get:
- The original and infamous "Harry Reid Smear" letter, signed by 41 Democat senators
- The Halliburton briefcase in which this letter is secured 24 hours a day
- A personal letter of thanks from the Man Who Runs America, Rush Limbaugh
- A photograph of Rush displaying the letter on stage in Philadelphia on October 11th

<<<end


The man who runs America?? ...Who is he kidding? He's such a pawn.

[KneelBeforeZod]

21. You can thank Trent Lott for that little phrase ...

>> The man who runs America?? ...Who is he kidding? He's such a pawn.

After Limbaugh unleashed on Trent Lott during the Immigration Debate earlier this year, Lott responded to a question about the Fairness Doctrine by saying, "Talk Radio is running America - we have to deal with that problem."

As arrogant gas-bags often do ... Limbaugh latched onto Lott's condemnation and now uses it as a bumper-sticker slogan for his show.

He did the same thing when Clinton said Limbaugh was operating without a "truth-detector". I think he's still using the phrase "America's Truth Detector" as a slogan.

Z

[RoccoR5955]

29. Shouldn't that be...

The man that Runs FROM America, comedian, Rush Limbaugh?

[CJCRANE]

7. Harry Reid now needs to

crank out hundreds of letters so this one would be worthless...

[Just-plain-Kathy]

12. There has to be a secretive letter or memo from the darkside that dems could raise money with.

Hmmmm. We have to put our heads together and think about this.

[grasswire]

9. check betty's feedback -- something's very fishy here

Apparently, betty has previously only dealt with eBay dealers who sell small-time stuff. Items worth at most a couple hundred dollars. It doesn't appear that betty has this kind of money or this kind of interest!

Something is extremely fishy. I suspect a big fat scam here.

[grasswire]

10. betty may be a stooge for Limbaugh's own money.

He donates it through a proxie right back to his own non-profit?

[kevinmc]

16. I think it's a Limbaugh using a Proxy . n/t

[KneelBeforeZod]

13. Google "Betty Casey" ... she's apparently a well-known philanthropist ...

In fact, she seems to be an anti-Hillary philanthropist ... as her recent political contributions include the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Rudy Giuliani Senate Campaign (before he withdrew), the Rick Lazio Senate Campaign (after Giuliani withdrew), and the Barak Obama Presidential Campaign.

http://www.newsmeat.com/fec/bystate_detail.php?zip=20854&last=CASEY&first=BETTY

Z

[mitchum]

27. Maybe "Betty Casey" is just Limbaugh's drag name

sorry for that visual

[BearSquirrel2]

39. Rush Killed your dad, here is some money ..

Well it is a "military education fund". Perhaps they buy Rush Limbaugh books and donate them to the troops.

If the fund is legit, that's great. It's good to see that Limbaugh is doing SOME good in the world helping military orphans. It's not enough to negate the fact that HE is one of the people getting their parents killed by sending them overseas on a wild oil chase.

[KneelBeforeZod]

11. Kudos to Limbaugh ...

For all the disdain I have for Rush Limbaugh ... this was a brilliant stunt. This was the best handling of a "foot-in-mouth" scandal I've ever seen.

He took a PR nightmare in the anti-patriotic "phony soldiers" remark - flipped it on its head, and comes out looking like the hero in this whole thing. He spun an unmitigated catastrophe into a complete victory. He raised $2.1M for the families of fallen Marines, matched it with $2.1M out of his own pocket, challenged each of the signatories to match the bid price (which, clearly, few can because of the $2.1M price tag) ... and ended up making the 41 signatories (particularly Reid) look foolish in the process.

I think Limbaugh is an arrogant wind-bag ... but the Democratic Party could take a page from the Limbaugh playbook on this one. He instantaneously went from being on the defensive, to being on offense - and scored big points in the process. Next time we have a MSM scandal eruption, I hope we'll devise a similar smackdown response.

Kudos to Rush on this one ... well played.

Z

[loudsue]

23. You're sure proud of him. Friend of yours? n/t

[KneelBeforeZod]

24. Certainly not ... he's a plague ...

But, I'm not above admitting when an adversary has a good day.

Z

[loudsue]

28. I should apologize for that...it was pretty snarky, huh?

:hi: Sorry.

[KneelBeforeZod]

31. No worries ...

No harm, no foul.

Z

[StandFast]

30. Agree, kudos to El Rushbo

KneelBeforeZod, right on dude. My disdain for El Rushbo is also copious, but I have to admit he pulled off a nice little move on this one. That's why they pay him the big bucks.

[liberal1973]

35. I don't think so

This proves even more how patronizing this person is. He comes off even a bigger ass. He has zero credibility ,and the guy is a loser.

Limp shows even more contempt for our troops by doing this.

[KneelBeforeZod]

37. Huh?

>> This proves even more how patronizing this person is. He comes off even a bigger ass.

He comes off as a "bigger ass" for using the outcry surrounding his comments to raise $4.2M (including $2.1M out of his own pocket) for a charity that helps the children of fallen Marines through college? I don't get it.

>> He has zero credibility ,and the guy is a loser.

Overall, I won't dispute that ... loser, no credibility. But, in this particular story ... he didn't lose. He scored a indisputable PR victory, helped a worthy charity, and made 41 Democrats look ridiculous in the process. He won - and it wasn't even close.

>> Limp shows even more contempt for our troops by doing this.

I'd love an explanation as to how this could possibly be true. How did he "show even more contempt for our troops" by auctioning off this letter, and giving from his own funds, for the benefit of the families of fallen troops?

Sometimes even blowhards have a good day ... don't let ideology cloud your judgement here. Limbaugh is an ass ... but this was an indisputably brilliant move on his part.

Z

[liberal1973]

43. No it wasn't

It was patronizing. Knowing full well he dissed the troops and goes off auctions a letter.

Just because you wear a pin doesn't excuse you from being full of crap. People are not stupid as to what the blow hard is doing.

I don't think so ,for a great move would have been giving the funds to the this group before the dissing of our troops.

What he did and said will be known forever.

[susiemac]

44. When?

Okay, when exactly did he diss our soldiers? When I first
heard about the letter I checked out the entire transcript and
listened to the audio. He did not ever call the soldiers who
disagreed with the war phony soldiers. It was very clear that
he was referring to soldiers who dress up and play soldier to
get attention, money, whatever.

As for Democrats ponying up to match the bid...didn't Reid
make a ton of money off a land deal in the last couple of
years? Hillary could pay that out of her pocket change, as
could Kennedy. I can see where Obama might have a hard time,
but many of the signers are long time senators and have the
money. AND it is a tax write-off as it is a charitable
contribution.

I read something the other day from the head of the charity
and he stated very clearly that Rush has given millions to the
charity and helped raise millions more. So he's done good
there and I definitely agree with Zod...it was a stroke of
sheer marketing genius. And I do think that Reid was pretty
pathetic in trying to make it appear that he was in on it all
the time.

So, flame away...I sort of expect it.

[tammywammy]

40. I agree

It was a good move on Rush's part.

[pissnoffrethugs]

14. You have to wonder,

How much of the money is going to actually go to the kids and how much will go for "Overhead" costs.

[KneelBeforeZod]

17. Apparently, none goes to overhead ...

According to the terms of the auction, 100% of the proceeds goes to the Marine Corps Law Enforcement Foundation. Ebay's fees apparently were paid out of the seller's pocket, as was shipping.

It appears that MCLEF will be getting a $4.2 Million Dollar check.

Z

[brendan120678]

18. According to their 990...

According to their 990, they don't seem to have a huge overhead. Nothing out of the ordinary, anyways. Much less than many of the "big-name" charities.

[pissnoffrethugs]

20. Then that would be fine, as long as it goes to a good cause.

[brendan120678]

15. The winner, Betty Casey,

Is apparently a fairly big-time D.C. philanthropist.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A60277-2003Dec12?language=printer

Good for her. The charity who gets the donation, MC-LEF, is a pretty good one. I've donated to them myself in the past.

[dipsydoodle]

19. Superficially the whole thing

is a giant spoof. For "It" to have bid 4 identicals of that amount risked another bidder hop jumping until they got past the first 3. The alternative would have been to bid an erroneous amount of $ 22,000,000 by adding one nought too many and then retracting it to the correct level just below "it's" highest bid which would have by then been made apparent. It/She? Would've been completely screwed.

[Renew Deal]

22. That's never going to be collected.

Count on it.

[DrDan]

25. they (Reid and the 41 signatories) should flood the market with 1,000 or so similar letters . . . .

[Up2Late]

26. Sorry, I guess I missed this one, could you provide a little background on this one?

This is the first I've heard of this.:shrug:

[frankenforpres]

32. a bunch of Politicians

politicians wasting the american public's time and money decided to lower themselves and go after a fool with a radio show, and that fool made them look silly


i am so sick of getting clowned by that drug addict and having senators respond to it

[brendan120678]

33. Long story short...

Harry Reid and 40 other Democratic senators sent a harsh letter of criticism regarding Limbaugh's "phony soldiers" comments to Clear Channels. Rush decides to place the letter up for auction on eBay, with all winnings going to the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation. Rush promised to make a matching donation to the charity as well.

The auction ended today, with a winning bid of a little over $2M.

[Up2Late]

41. Wow, I'm speechless.

Thanks for the update.

[KneelBeforeZod]

36. Recap ...

A couple of weeks ago, Rush used the term "phony soldiers" to describe military personnel who have dissenting opinions on the Iraq War. Limbaugh maintains that he was speaking only of those few protesters that were fraudulently posing as soliders ... but it remains clear from the transcript that he was referring to all dissenting soldiers. There was a general media-firestorm surrounding the comments ... including condemnations and calls for Limbaugh's head.

In the aftermath of the comments, Harry Reid sent a letter, bearing the signatures of 41 Democratic Senators, to the President of Clear Channel asking for a formal apology from Rush and pushing to have him removed from the airwaves for such unpatriotic statements.

The CC President gave the letter to Limbaugh, and - in a brilliant PR move, Rush promptly put it up for auction Ebay with the proceeds going to the MCLEF (Marine Corps - Law Enforcement Foundation), a charity which gives scholarships to the children of fallen Marines and Law Enforcement Officers. Rush promised to match the bid as a show of "patriotism", and challenged the 41 Democratic signatories to do the same.

The Ebay auction ended today ... the Limbaugh-condemnation letter (which Rush called the Harry Reid Smear letter) went for $2,100,100.00 to Betty Casey ... a noted philanthropist, Limbaugh listener, and anti-Hillary crusader (given her history of political donations to anyone running against Hillary).

Given the matching funds, Rush took this PR nightmare and ended up using it to make $4,200,200.00 for the families of fallen Marines.

Now you're up to speed. :)

Z

[gateley]

34. I'd posted before that if I had the $$$ I'd pay whatever it took, refuse the

HALLIBURTON briefcase and other Rush accoutrements, and showcase the letter as a positive action of the Dems condemning a vile anti-troops radio host.

I was hoping another Dem out there with the funds might feel the same, but alas...

[MyUncle]

38. Harry Reed was extremely gracious today.

His comments on this very expensive "stunt" were exemplary. Sen. Reed did well here.

[Zandor]

42. Glad to see something good come out of it n/t

[complain jane]

45. Some of the righties have been shrilling about the letter being such a "hot item" on eBay.

If you look at the auction there were only 61 bidders, and out of that, only 2-3 did most of the bidding.

Some "hot item". :eyes:

[GrantDem]

46. Casey's political donations...

http://www.newsmeat.com/fec/bystate_detail.php?last=Casey&first=Betty&st=MD